Cohousing-L Mailing List: Sharing activities: Was size and management companies

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Sharing activities is an important  aspect of being a community. However,
work is not the only activity that can be shared. One of the most difficult
aspects of cohousing for some people is to find time to be a part of the
community. Their work and family lives eat up 82.6% of their waking time.
Given everything else there is, that does not leave much left for community.

 If you were to make a scale from one to ten about activities that build
connections and community,( and this is a great general meeting exercise)
doing work, especially work that does not involve people being together to
accomplish, is low on the scale and easily transferable to an outside
management company. Meals are in my estimation high on the community scale,
as are parties, sharing circles, sewing bees, game nights, and dancing.

I think it is to a communities advantage, if time is a scarce resource for
many members, to prioritize the things  people engage their time in so as to
maximize the community connection. Then hire your management company to
accomplish the rest.

And I would caution you: Don't let lawyers and their liability issues run
your community, they generally give bad  advice related to community
building.

Rob Sandelin
Long time resident of Sharingwood Community and self employed with
Community Works! Group process workshops for social change  organizations
www.ic.org/nica/cw1.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org
[mailto:cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org]On Behalf Of Sharon Villines
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 5:22 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: size and management companies


> continue to do our trash and recycling.  However, there are enough people
> who feel strongly that once we give up everything to the management
company
> we are on the slippery slope of becoming "just another condo" - so we keep
> doing it ourselves.

It seems that there are so many things we like doing together and hope to
accomplish together that getting up at 6:30 to shovel snow or pick up trash
so we don't get fined, is not one of them. Trash strews itself without any
help from anyone and no one can even predict the snow, much less make it
stop or set it for noon.

Our lawyers (residents) are also adamant that we have less liability if we
have a management company to deal with various things.

Sharon
--
Sharon Villines
In Washington, DC where all roads lead to Casablanca
Takoma Village Cohousing
http://www.takomavillage.org
http://www.cohousing.org